


The Origin of an Outlaw

by Count_Duckoo



Series: November Daily Writing Prompts- PMD [2]
Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon
Genre: Action, Action/Adventure, Blackmail, Breaking and Entering, Gen, Swearing, continuation of "All's Well that Ends Well?", corrupt nobles, not too bad but just wanted to warn you
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-11
Updated: 2020-11-11
Packaged: 2021-03-09 19:14:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,656
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27501379
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Count_Duckoo/pseuds/Count_Duckoo
Summary: Continuing from "All's Well that Ends Well?", Cala the Sneasel and Idris the Pawniard sneak into a manor to find proof that House Merbolt is covering something up.
Series: November Daily Writing Prompts- PMD [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1760722





	The Origin of an Outlaw

That evening found the two of them hiding behind a boulder, looking up at a manor on the edge of a rocky cliff. It was surrounded by tall stone walls and towers, to the point where it looked more like a fortress than a manor. There were spots of torchlight moving back and forth on top of the wall, showing the presence of guards but not what kind. There was a large wooden door at the front of the wall, but standing guard were two bipedal armadillos with a yellow brick pattern covering most of their bodies except their beige underbellies. Idris let out a low whistle. “Seems pretty heavily guarded for the manor of a minor lord. You might be right about there being something more going on here, rather than just a small gang of bandits and a local lord being overprotective of his land.”

“Of course I’m right; I’m always right!” Cala exclaimed. Idris sighed as she went on, “Now, that main entrance is really heavily guarded by those two sandshrew, and there are a bunch of guards on the walls, but if I learned anything back… well, back then, you know…” she looked wistful for a moment before shaking herself. “I learned that the servants’ entrance is basically never guarded. It’ll be the perfect place to sneak in. Now come on. It’s probably on the far side of the wall…or maybe it’s connected to a cave in the cliff? No, that would be an escape route, not a servants’ entrance…” She mumbled as she began walking toward the manor. Idris muttered a curse and followed her.

They made their way around the wall, pausing whenever they heard any sound from the guards above them. They stuck close to the wall so that a guard would have to lean out far over the edge to see them, and whenever there was any sign that a guard might be about to do that, they fell to the ground to hide any brighter parts of their bodies and blend in better with the darkness. As they reached the back side of the manor, standing only a few feet away from the edge of the cliff, they saw a small wooden door in the wall with no pokemon nearby keeping guard.

Cala snuck up to the door and tried the handle. “Locked,” she muttered. “I think…yeah, Olwyn showed me a trick for locks like this, just in case I got locked out of somewhere. Hope I remember it right.” She put a small shard of ice into the keyhole, then blew frosty air in it to expand the shard to fit the lock. When it had expanded enough, she tried twisting it, and the door opened. “Heh, never thought I would use that. I’ll have to thank…no, nevermind. C’mon, let’s get in there and start looking for them,” she said as she slipped through the door. Idris paused for a moment, looking around, before following after her, once again muttering under his breath.

The inside of the manor was dark, and there were no other pokemon in sight. The walls were dark brown, and the floor was made of dark gray stone. The hallway stretched to the left and right: to the left there seemed to be the entrance to a pantry or kitchen around five yards away, while to the right it just continued on for as far as they could see in the dark. There were a few torches on the walls for light, but the flames were low and provided very little illumination. As they looked, Cala whispered, “I think I hear some noises from that kitchen or whatever it is. Let’s go the other way; try to find some nicer rooms.”

As she began to walk, Idris put his arm in front of her, stopping her. He whispered back, “I know you think this is some big conspiracy and they are all working together, but still, we should check the dungeons first. Less likely to get seen, more likely to find them fast, and so more likely to get out of here without getting caught.”  
Cala paused for a moment, considering, before pushing his arm out of the way and replying with a huff, “Fine. We’ll do it your way first, but I’m telling you they won’t be there. Anyways, this way is still probably the easiest way to get up or downstairs, so let’s go.”

They walked down the hallway, sticking to the side of it to try to be out of sight of anyone they might run into. They didn’t see any pokemon, nor did they see any doors or side passages. They came to a corner in the hallway and stopped, Cala looking around the corner. “No one there, and I think I see a staircase ahead through an archway on the left,” she whispered. “That might be the way down, and maybe up too.” They snuck around the corner and made their way to the doorway; and sure enough, there was a spiral staircase that went down into what looked like a dungeon, as well as up to the floors above.

They made their way down the stone steps. When they reached the bottom, they peered through the darkness into the cells on each side. There was no sign of anyone in the cells, although there was a sandshrew leaning on the far wall next to a ring of keys on a hook. They had their eyes closed and seemed to be fast asleep. Cala whispered, “I don’t see ‘em. Either they put them in some hidden deeper dungeon, they didn’t bring them back to the manor at all, or…” She looked at Idris expectantly.

“Or what?”

“Or they aren’t being punished, like I said, and they are somewhere in the nicer rooms of the manor, like I said. Now c’mon, let's get out of this dank place and start looking for them upstairs.” She rushed back up the stairs they had come down, being far less cautious than they had on the way down. Idris stared in shock for a moment before rushing after her, struggling to keep up with her pace while still being quiet. As he went up, he glanced back at the guard and was relieved to find they were still asleep.

Cala sped up the staircase, past the floor they had started on to the floor above. She peeked around the corner and saw that it was much better illuminated with brightly lit torches, and had more doors on each side. There didn’t seem to be any pokemon out on this floor either, probably because of the time of night, but she thought she heard something from a room just across the hallway. She snuck across and peered in through the keyhole. Inside, she saw the same carkol and geodudes they had fought earlier that day, and the room was fairly well furnished with proper hay beds and a chest next to the wall. It didn’t look anything like a cell! She staggered back; sure she was proven right, but some part of her didn’t want to be proven right! She turned to go back down the stairs to find Idris, but bumped into someone else instead: Theseus, the togedemaru from before. Behind him was one of the Carracosta guards from before, holding a struggling Idris with one of their flippers over his mouth.

“Well, I suppose I should have known you guild lackeys would resort to breaking and entering. Or…did you and your friend come on your own, without the backing of the guild? Tsk, tsk, naughty little sneasel.” He scolded, “Well…I can make use of you. Some time in the future, I will ask a favor of you, little sneasel. And if you think you can tell the guild of this, or get out of doing this favor, I suppose I will just have to tell the guild about this little excursion of yours. The word of a lowly guild apprentice versus that of a noble. Is that a deal, hmm?” He used one of his stubby arms to lift her chin, despite being shorter than her.

She slapped his arm away, but when the carracosta behind him let out a low, threatening grumble, she stopped in place. “Fine. We’ll take your deal,” she spat out. “Just let us out of shitty manor of yours.”

* * *

The next morning, they were in their room back at the guild after what sleep they could get. Idris was pacing, lost in thought, and Cala was lying on her hay bed, fuming. She said, “Well, that was horrible. But…at least we got something out of it, or rather off of that asshole,” she pulled a gold nugget out from behind her ear.

Idris snatched it out of her hand and examined it, exclaiming, “Did you steal that!? What the fuck? We’re already in trouble with House Merbolt, do you want us to get in even more trouble?”

“What? They were assholes anyway, and as we found out, corrupt assholes. We can make better use of something like this than they could, too. In fact…since the guild is doing nothing to stop shit like what they did from happening, and I bet other guilds aren’t doing much either…” she paused to gather her thoughts, then leapt up with one fist raised in the air. “Why don’t we do this on our own? Two thieves, no, vigilantes, against the rich, corrupt nobles in the world! If other pokemon aren’t going to step in to make things better, we should take things into our own hands, and do things our own way. We will make a difference by taking these assholes down a notch.”

Idris opened his mouth, paused, then closed it again. He thought for a moment. He began pacing again. Finally, he turned to her and said, “I’m in.”

**Author's Note:**

> Not actually from a writing prompt, but a continuation of one of my stories using one: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27105343.


End file.
